


Commiserating

by lunaseemoony



Category: Broadchurch, Doctor Who (2005), Teninch - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Meet-Cute, Pete's World, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-22
Updated: 2016-07-22
Packaged: 2018-07-26 03:03:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7557625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunaseemoony/pseuds/lunaseemoony
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec Hardy arrests Rose Tyler for disrupting business in a shop, not believing her wild tale about Torchwood business. But something about her changes his mind along the way to the precinct, and he has a surprising change of heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Commiserating

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by hardyxrose on tumblr as part of my Fourteen Days of Ficlets special. Thank you for this prompt!

“I’m telling ya, you’re making a huge mistake,” Rose groused as the detective gently threw her up against his car. “If you’d just let me call my mate Mickey he’d tell ya I’m here on business.”

The scruffy cop ignored her and began patting her down. “Got anything in any of these…” He paused over her bra strap. “Got anything in your pockets I need to worry about?”

Normally Rose carried her pistol on her when she was _working_ , but seeing as how she was just popping in for groceries she wasn’t carrying anything. She certainly hadn’t anticipated running into any work-related troubles, certainly not at the grocer’s. This is what Rose’s life had become after Torchwood: being arrested outside a grocer’s for helping fend off a swarm of nanobots from infesting its patrons. Not that the cop believed her about the nanobots. She couldn’t fault him for that one. All the same, forget making dinner. Rose wanted to find the nearest chippy, pop in a film, and forget about all this.

His hands trembled just slightly over her bum and Rose rolled her eyes. He had kind eyes, seemed well-meaning, if a bit tightly wound. The way his fingers hovered over her jeans as if they might bite she briefly wondered how long it had been since he’d touched a lady, bless.

“How long have you been in London?” Rose asked once they were on the road, and shifted in her seat. Bloody hell cuffs were uncomfortable.

“You realize you’re on the record here, right miss?” His knuckles were white, gripping the steering like it was his lifeline.

“Just making conversation is all. You seem tense. I appreciate your discretion by the way, arresting me out back rather than the front. If I showed up in the papers like that it’d be a PR nightmare.”

He snorted. “It’s where my car was parked.” Rose wasn’t getting anywhere so she dropped it, letting silence fester for an agonizingly long couple of minutes. Finally the cop broke the silence at a stoplight. “Six months. It’s awful, all the zeppelins and the rude people with their mobiles glued to their ears.”

“Better than earpods.” 

“True, that.”

The silence this time was pleasant as the car began rolling again. Calm wafted between them, and Rose looked out the window, watching the city pass them from their impenetrable bubble.

“You get used it you know, the noise,” Rose offered. “Takes a while, but it comes.”

“Maybe,” he relented. “But the people, do you ever adjust?” 

Rose took in a deep breath. Did he mean being grounded with them all, being an ordinary human just like the rest? That was slow going. She sighed.

“My line of work has shown me how awful people can be sometimes. But there are still good people in this world fighting for what’s right.”

They pulled up to the precinct and the cop just sat, turning around to look Rose square in the eye as if contemplating the weight of her words. His gruff expression softened before he opened the passenger door to uncuff her. She froze and narrowed her eyes at him.

“Please accept my apologies miss. I think I… acted rashly.” 

He meant these words, deeply, to Rose’s surprise. His face seemed to be fixed, but there was sincerity and a gentleness in his eyes. Maybe he was a gentle soul that had experienced too much grief. Rose offered him a soft smile as he helped her out of his car.

“Quite all right,” she offered. 

“I’d love to make it up to you, and continue our conversation over tea.” He kept her hand for a few seconds too long, and yanked his back with his freckled cheeks flushing just slightly.

“You don’t want proof I was telling you the truth?” 

“There’s a quiet little restaurant down the street. Maybe tell me about those… robots there?” 

“Nanobots.” Rose started walking in the direction the cop had been looking in. “All right then…” she searched for his name in a pause.

“Hardy. Alec Hardy.”

He began following her without question.

“All right then Alec. It’s a date.”  


End file.
